Thriving As Perfectly Imperfect

I can trace this all the way back to the years I spent recording music. I was willing to work and polish and refine only so far and then I was done.

There would be no more takes and no more overdubs. If there was a break in my voice on the track or if my guitar didn’t sound as bright as it could have on a chord, I wasn’t going to go back and change it.

There was something about the natural feel of a raw, less than perfect sound that I was going to leave intact for eternity.

Because once the album or the song was out, there was no going back. It would be that way forever.

When I was still trying to make something of myself as a singer/songwriter, I sat down with a management company and listened to a man who I had a great deal of respect for tell me “The best songs are re-written.”

And I refused to believe him.

I was very possessive about my lyrics at the time. Something that I have realized I was very short-sighted about. Once the lyrics were done, there was no changing them. I wasn’t going to change the title, the lyrics, nothing.

What the management representative wanted was for me to tinker with the lyrics until it was more like what they wanted. Change a chorus here, switch the title to this instead of that, they wanted it perfect.

I wasn’t hearing it.

Thankfully, I’ve matured (slightly) in my old age.

Where I no longer write songs, I now write articles like these. They are part of my current creative outlet.

But there is still a part of me that is fully willing and 100% committed to putting the less-than-my-best out there. Rather, I am putting out the-best-I-can-right-now.

There are coaches in this industry who I have so much love and respect for who will go back through their previous output and either edit or delete anything that is not excellent. They only want their best work out on the internet.

I understand the logic.

If the first thing someone sees of my work is an article that is not my best, how does that resonate with them? Is there a second chance for a first impression?

To be honest, I don’t really know.

And perhaps I’m leaving money on the table by not changing my perspective.

But I am willing to be less than perfect in the eyes of anyone who consumes my output.

Regardless of whether or not my articles are perfect, they come out every week.

I put the time in, consistently.

And I know that I improve.

Maybe not with each new article but over time.

And, I would challenge you to approach your health and wellness path in a similar way.

It’s ultimately what I ask of my clients.

Don’t worry over whether or not it’s perfect. Just put the time in.

It’s less about going on autopilot or simply going through the motions and more about making routines and habits the norm rather than the exception. Let those routines become so instinctive that you no longer have to worry about limited resources like…willpower or motivation.

It does take caring at least enough about your process to streamline the “less than perfect” with the “better than you had hoped” and everything in between.

But you don’t really know what you have to give until you start doing it.

I have a lot of clients who don’t perfectly hit their caloric intake or (if they utilize them) their macronutrient targets yet they still lose weight.

I have a lot of clients who come into the gym feeling less than their best and still break previous personal records.

Sometimes you just have to show up and do what needs to be done.

And yes, sometimes you need to recover: get some sleep, eat some quality food and attack on a better day.

The picture below is our resident, Ken who just took over the top spot in squat with a 375lb single. It was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. Not too bad for a guy who claimed he hadn’t quite recovered from his weekend.

If we had been waiting around for Ken to feel 100% to break his previous squat record I don’t know when it would have come. By the way, what in the world does feeling 100% even feel like?